A Wild Card That Takes Your Heart
by Lifewardenfictions
Summary: Rewrite: An AU where instead of Yu Narukami the P5Protag is sent to Yasogami's delinquent Rehabilitation program and gets caught up in the murder case that sweeps the town. Can the Phantom Thief gain redemption, or will the world fall forever into fog?
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1: To Roadless Travel Together We Go

The passenger train rattled gently through the Japanese countryside, bearing various members of the public wherever it was their various paths would lead them. Amongst these passengers a young man sat, he was different than the other passengers, a fact that he was very aware of and was the reason he was gazing implacably out the window as the countryside went by, as opposed to gazing about the cabin at the ever diminishing amount of fellows. Many things set the young man apart from his fellows, if he had been standing the first thing that would have been noticed was his impressive height, he stood at a solid 198 cm, and as such towered over most other people; however sitting down the most obvious difference would be the most apparent, the young man was clearly not completely Japanese. His features, a mix of many different peoples and cultures, light brown skin and jet black hair were contrasted by deep silver eyes, framed by large round rimmed glasses had always set him apart from his peers, and still did to this day. Having dealt with the subtle glances and well-meaning but still slightly hurtful questions his whole life he was used to them, however he didn't enjoy them, and as such continued to determinedly stare out the window trying his best to ignore them as they happened over his shoulder. He occupied his mind by imagining what kind of place he would be going to and only succeeded in making himself melancholy as his mind wandered back to the place he had left.

"Now as you're all aware this young man here will be transferring schools at the end of the semester, due to personal issues."

The young man in question snorted quietly, personal issues was a polite way of phrasing it.

The low muttering that erupted around the room barely registered in his memories, as the thing that held his mind fast was the sharp feminine gasp he heard coming from a few rows back. He remembered forcing his head up to glance at the source and the hot wash of shame he felt as the beautiful girl who had made it met his eyes and in just a short second sent all of her pain and rage towards him, he hadn't told her about his leaving as he had been hoping to disappear and leave her unaware. The final days of his semester had not been pleasant. As he continued to jog down memory lane, Narukami's eyes began to feel heavy and he found himself entering into a light doze, at least until he heard an unmistakably eerie voice mutter something across from him.

"Welcome to the Velvet Room."

* * *

A particularly loud trundle startled him awake, and he took a short second reengaging his brain. The dreams he had experienced had been bizarre, almost feverish, he vaguely remembered a long nose and something about a calamity; he swore he could recall snippets of something else, something sinister, a women struggling, screaming, and dying. He shook his head to divest himself of the unpleasant shiver that crawled down his spine and he stood and retrieved his bag. While he had been lost in thought the train had slowed to a stop and he began to make his way towards the door, duffel bag in one hand and mobile phone in the other. The station was tiny and also completely empty and the young man sighed internally to himself.

"Another year, another school and yet they couldn't send me to a place that had more than 10 people living in it, wonder if they even have pretty girls in this place?"

Moving swiftly and surely towards the end of the platform, he found his way to the exit and stepped out, catching his first glimpse of his new town. It was pretty enough in a plain sort of way and he found himself grimacing slightly.

"Yep, definitely no pretty girls here, I'm doomed."

"Hey you, over here." A gruff voice cut into his ears, grimacing at the use of what he mentally called "cop voice" the teen glanced up as an older man and young girl made their way towards him.

"Well, you're more handsome in person than in your photo." The older gentleman held out his hand. "Welcome to Inaba, I'm Ryotaro Dojima I'll be looking after you."

The double meaning of the statement was not lost on him, yet he felt that diplomacy was his best option.

"It's been a long time Uncle, but I didn't forget you." The youth took the proffered hand and shook it, a wry smile crossing his face.

Dojima chuckled slightly while pushing the young girl who had taken shelter behind his legs forward.

"Fair enough, but you two still haven't met, this here is my daughter." He looked down at her expectantly. "Come on Nanako; introduce yourself to your cousin"

The girl glanced up at him shyly before muttering a quiet hello and shuffling back behind her father. Her cousin smiled patiently at her, but he was scowling internally, he had never been very comfortable around children.

His uncle made a joke at his daughters' expense and let out a startled yelp when he was on the receiving end of a vicious slap.

"Maybe we should get going, my cars over here."

Smiling politely the new addition began following his family, barely noticing that somebody had passed by him until he heard a quiet voice behind him.

"Hey… you dropped this."

He turned around was almost immediately struck dumb by the vision of beauty who stood in front of him. She was young, about his age, chin length black hair accentuated her face; a red collar with a gold lock rested around her neck and as his eyes drifted further down an internal voice whispered some incredibly unflattering things in his subconscious. A tight white shirt stretched across her chest, and if her plaid skirt got any higher it would be criminal at the least, thigh high socks and striped sleeves finished her attire, it was as he was glancing at the sleeves that he noticed the girl was holding out a piece of paper towards him.

"Thank you very much." He replied, his hand extended if its own accord and retrieved the paper.

"Whatever, all I did was pick it up." The girl stared at him for a short moment before swivelling around and stalking off without another word.

"Well isn't she a friendly one," the youth mused as he watched her walk away, paying particular attention to the way her skirt swayed as she moved. He heard Dojima call for him, and turned hurriedly, he didn't want his uncle to think he was perving on some innocent small town girl, even though it was exactly what he was doing. Stepping into his uncles' car he glanced back, only to find the girl had vanished from sight. With a sigh he leaned back into the chair and let himself drift as the car began to move. They hadn't gone far before the car slowed down again, and he opened his eyes to notice they had pulled into a gas station, or more appropriately, _the_ gas station. He took a moment before stepping out of the car after his uncle and cousin and just barely caught the tail end of some stupid conversation about how to tell which side was left. His uncle and the gas station attendant continued to speak, he believed about himself, but he was frankly too irritated to care and stared down the street in mild irritation. It took him a while before he noticed his uncle had wandered off to smoke and the attendant had taken it as an excuse to come and speak with him instead.

"Does it surprise a city boy to see how little there is to do around here?" the young man made a vague grunt of assent and was dismayed that the attendant continued to blather on. "You'll either be hanging out with your friends or doing part-time jobs." The attendant held out his hand, and the teen, seeing an opportunity to end the conversation took it and gave it a quick shake. The shake was quick and simple, and the attendant than excused himself to do his actual job of pumping gas. The young delinquent smiled and attempted to enjoy the peace and quiet, but his relaxation was interrupted by a sudden spike of nausea and pain, his head felt like it was about to explode and it took everything he had not to lose his light lunch on the pavement.

"Are you alright, you don't look so good." Looking up he noticed Nanako was looking at him with undisguised concern and he forced a small smile onto his face in an attempt to reassure her.

"I'm fine, just a bit lightheaded; I probably just need to lie down."

"Well we can get you home in just a moment," interjected Dojima, who had just wandered back into the conversation after his smoke break. "Sure you don't want to take a quick breather around town first?"

"I'd rather just get home, rested and better."

Dojima nodded in affirmation and they all re-entered the car, as the vehicle cruised down the street the young man though he caught a glimpse of the girl from the station, but she vanished again and he chalked it up to the nausea and pushed her from his mind.

* * *

The Dojima household was nice, modest certainly, not something his wealthy parents would ever live in, but beautiful in an understated way. Dinner was also fun, and in a way comforting as they dined together, his parents often didn't have time enough that the whole family could eat together. It was shortly after Dojima had happily welcomed him into the household that the gruff older man's phone rang, and he excused himself from the table.

"Dojima speaking," the youth couldn't hear the other speaker but it was evident by the look on his uncles' face that whatever was being said wasn't good.

"I understand I'll be right there." Dojima made his apologies and began to walk out the door.

"Sorry, business, go ahead and eat without me."

Nodding the teen narrowed his eyes, yes that was something he was familiar with. He was filled with a slight disappointment, that was only overcome when he realized that he was trapped alone with a small child, and he had no idea what the hell to do with himself.

Nanako had turned the TV on and yet he had the ominous feeling that he should say something.

"Must be tough, him going out like that?" He slapped himself internally for asking such an insensitive question and looked back down at his food.

"It's always like this, dad's a detective." Nanako began, however a loud new broadcast, something about some councilman distracted her and she trailed off. "This is boring, let's watch something else." She turned the channel and the jingle of the store that the boy most despised came blaring from the television.

"Every day's great at your Junes." He sighed audibly, but he wasn't heard by Nanako as she herself had also burst out singing the Junes tune.

She turned back to him a wistful smile on her small face as she began to eat her sushi again. He also returned to his meal and they passed the rest of the evening in companionable silence.

After the meal the young man trudged upstairs to the room he had been given for the year, it was decently spacious even crowded with all the boxes and assorted things scattered around. He maneuverer his way around everything and settled down onto his futon, deciding to unpack later when he was less tired. Settling down comfortably he began to drift off into the downy blanket of sleep, but as he finally faded he could have sworn he heard a sinister mutter directly into his ear.

"Do you desire the truth?"

* * *

A/N: So yeah this is my rewrite of WCUYS starring the P5 Protag, obviously this will change how the events of P4 unfold, things will start to look a bit different when we finally get him into Yasogami, also I need to come up with a name for him, since it seems a bit uncouth to call him Chair-kun or Potter-Kun. You can check story progress on my personal blog, link is in my profile. Anywho as always thank you Atlus for giving me such a great series to ruin, and all you readers without whom I couldn't do this.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2: You've Started a New Life

The young man woke gasping and thrashing, the terror of the dream still fresh in his mind as he slowly pulled himself back into true wakefulness. Taking heavy slow breaths he allowed the gentle patter of rain on the roof to soothe his frayed nerves, that nightmare had not been pleasant. That horrifying path, the thickness of the fog pressing in on all sides, and that awful sinister voice whispering incessantly in his ear growing louder and louder as the fog began to slither into his nose and mouth, choking his breath from him and bearing him slowly to the floor. Shaking his head he stood up, that was definitely something he didn't need to dwell on, and from the smell of it he could soon distract himself with a delicious breakfast; swiftly pulling on his school uniform he rushed down the stairs a slight smile on his face.

His smile lasted until the moment he entered the kitchen and saw his cousin preparing breakfast alone, his uncle nowhere in sight.

"Hey Nanako, is your dad already at work?"

The young girl nodded meekly and set a plate of eggs on the table in front of him and the youth began to shovel them quickly into his mouth doing his best to avoid further conversation with the young girl.

"Are you ready to go to school; my school is on the way so we can walk together?"

He opened his mouth to refuse, but quickly shut it when he realised that he had no idea where the hell he was actually walking and that it would probably be a good idea to have a guide so he nodded swiftly.

"Sounds like a plan Nanako, give me a moment to grab my bag and we'll be on the way."

Rushing upstairs to grab his bag and umbrella, he gave himself a quick look in the mirror, satisfied with his appearance he returned downstairs to find Nanako waiting by the front door and they both began the trek to school.

Nanako was slightly more talkative on the walk down the floodplain and her cousin found himself curious as to what had caused the little girl to be able to speak with such maturity despite her age. It wasn't long before the two parted ways and following the direction Nanako had indicated he found himself approaching his new school. The school was nice, at least for one settled in a backwoods town, and so far the students he'd seen hadn't stared at him, though that might have had something to do with the idiot who had lost his balance on his bike and was currently bouncing around clutching his genitals and groaning like a wounded gazelle. Silently laughing to himself the teen ducked his head down and quickly made his way into the entrance hall of the school and went to find his homeroom teacher.

The teacher was possibly the most physically unappealing human being he had ever laid eyes on; and it took only a few moments for him to discover that the man's personality wasn't much better.

"Excuse me," the young student began, "I'm a transfer student, and I'm looking for a Mr. Morooka?"

The man in question growled in irritation before flipping open the file sitting on the table in front of him and scanning it.

"You're Kaitō Lupin correct?" Without waiting for the youth to respond he barrelled on. "A half breed delinquent name, fit for a half bred delinquent I suppose." Standing he motioned for the youth to follow him, and stalked into the hallway.

Kaitō scowled in irritation at that statement, but followed the teacher quietly.

"I've been teaching delinquents like you for years, but I have to say kid, you're the first one I've seen who has absolutely nothing in their file that indicates what they were sent here for." Halting outside of class 2-2 the teacher glared hatefully at the young student. "You must have people in high places to keep that record of yours clean, you better not do anything to mess up their hard work." And with that final threat he turned and walked into the classroom.

"Alright all of you listen up, we've got a transfer student this year, and none of you better think about getting close to him, you little ingrates are going to be pure as driven snow."

Kaitō felt his eyebrows rise at that intro, what a fun way to meet everybody.

"Now write your name on the board and take a seat, ya hear me?"

Kaitō sighed, moved over to the blackboard and wrote his name on the board, before turning to address the class, and with a desire to irritate the teacher said something he hadn't quite planned too.

"You guys are lucky, I normally prefer to share my name only with whatever young woman I decide to sully so she feels more special during." The class gasped and stared, but it was worth it for the look on the teachers face.

"Now you listen here you little…degenerate, you're now officially on my shit list!" The teacher looked as though he was about to go on another mini rant about chastity when he was interrupted by a lyrical voice.

"Excuse me; can the transfer student sit here?" Kaitō found his eyes darting to the raised hand in the third row, and he found himself eagerly checking out the young woman who had spoken up in his defence.

She was pretty, in a tomboyish sort of way, though her face had multiple band aids on it; and her left eye was tinged with a healing bruise. Her hands were covered by black fingerless gloves and she was wearing a green sweatshirt that the perverted side of his brain noticed was baggy enough to disguise the size of her chest, and Kaitō briefly wondered what she would look like with it off. Shaking his head to clear himself of that thought he made his way over to the empty seat next to her, her feet were currently propped up on it, and Kaitō briefly took notice of her strong lean legs, and the knee high combat boots she wore.

"Bad luck getting stuck with King Moron, he's definitely the worst."

With a friendly smile the girl moved her legs out of his seat and held her hand out to shake.

Smiling he took it, noticing her deceptively strong grip.

"Names Chie Satonaka, nice to meet ya new guy" the young woman said cheerfully.

Kaitō smiled softly in return as he took his seat, next to her.

"Nice to meet you as well," He indicated the blackboard, "names up there."

Chie smiled brightly and leaned over conspiratorily.

"So what did a fine upstanding young man like you do to end up in the Morons den?"

Kaitō snorted softly, and smirked mockingly at her.

"Bit rude to ask don't you think, you show me yours and I'll show you mine."

Blushing slightly Chie leaned back into her seat, and nodded slightly in agreement.

"I get into fights, often." She said, touching the various bandages across her face. "It's not a very ladylike habit, especially as I seem to win." Chie's smile waned into something more sardonic, and she reached into her pocket, pulling out a lollipop and popping it into her mouth. "Your turn now."

"I have a bit of a problem with sticky fingers, and you could say I stole the wrong thing, ended up here."

"Well you definitely picked the wrong place to get sent."

"Will you two degenerates shut the hell up, and will you spit that damn thing out Satonaka?"

Chie gave a long suffering glance towards Kaitō, but turned back towards the teacher.

"Whatever you say sir."

* * *

It was after class, when a young man approached Satonaka, wringing his hands nervously and handing her what looked to be a DVD case.

"I had a really good time watching this and please don't hurt me I'll buy you a replacement!"

Chie looked curiously into the box, and sighed with resignation at the disk that lay inside, completely snapped in half.

"It's fine Yosuke, we'll deal with it later, just get the replacement and we'll call it even."

While saying this, the young woman approached slowly, before seizing Yosuke and suddenly slamming him genitals first into a nearby desk.

Without a second glance Chie stalked angrily out of the room, Kaitō on her heels, waiting outside the room was an elegant young woman clothed in red, with long black hair.

"Beating up somebody again Chie, you know that's not very nice right?"

"Well you know me Yukiko, sometimes I can't control myself, that's why I'm in class 2-2"

Yukiko smiled softly, before glancing towards Kaitō.

"Oh sorry Yukiko, this is Kaitō, he sits next me in class now, and speaking of class King Moron made me get rid of my last one, do you have my spares?"

Yukiko giggled and reached into her bag, pulling out a handful of lollipops and handing them to Chie. Chie squealed happily popping one in her mouth and pocketing the rest.

"And that Kaitō is why Yukiko here is my oldest friend." She began walking towards the school staircase and the two others fell into step behind her.

As Kaitō and the girls strolled out of the school gate a youth approached the trio, he was, and there was no kind way to phrase it, incredibly creepy and Kaitō felt himself instantly on edge.

"Hey you're Yuki right, you want to hang out somewhere?"

Yukiko appeared uncomfortable, and before she could answer Kaitō stepped in front of her.

"Hey there pal, despite the creepy alleyway vibe, I doubt the lady is interested." The youth looked nonplussed, before his face tightened in rage.

"What did you say to me?"

"She's not interested, back off creepy." This time it was Chie, and despite the fact that she had a cardboard stick hanging out of the corner of her mouth, even Kaitō had to admit the girl exuded serious killer edge.

A slight stare off ensued, however Kaitō towered over the other man, and eventually the creeper uttered an oath and ran off.

"Now that he's taken care of shall we continue on our way?" Without waiting for a response from the girls he began a brisk walk back into town. The women followed, walking with him and pointing out little curiosities of the sleepy town of Inaba, and Kaitō politely smiled and filed the information away for any future use.

"So ummm, I was kind of wondering, where exactly did you transfer from?" Chie asked an innocent enough question, but Kaitō could hear the hesitation in it and he knew exactly where it was leading.

"I'm from Tokyo, lived there almost my whole life, but my parents are on a rather lengthy business trip so they sent me out here."

Chie looked momentarily confused by this and looked as though she were about to ask another question when he pre-empted her next question.

"I'm not completely Japanese, that's why I don't look like I'm from here, mixed blood." There was a moment of silence following this pronouncement and Chie sensing his discomfort chose to change the subject.

"So you must think Yukiko is pretty cute huh?"

"Certainly she's pretty enough, not really my type though."

That was probably not the answer Chie had been expecting, however she was stopped from pursuing her line of questioning when she noticed a large crowd gathered in front of them.

Whatever it was that the crowd had been observing was gone, however the people still hadn't dispersed and the trio found themselves approaching the crowd curiously.

"What are you doing here?" The bark of a familiar voice startled Kaitō, and he turned to see his Uncle Dojima striding towards him.

"We were just passing through Uncle, did something happen?"

Dojima swore under his breath and muttered something about the principal keeping people away when a young man rushed past him and fell to the side of the road vomit spilling from his mouth.

"Adachi how long are you going to act like a rookie, you want to get sent back to the central office!"

Kaitō watched in mild sympathy as the man called Adachi dabbed his mouth with the end of his tie and strolled sheepishly back into the crime scene.

"Anyway you kids should probably head home, we still have business here." With this parting statement Dojima turned and followed the man Kaitō assumed was his partner.

Chie and Yukiko were talking quietly before they announced that they would be parting ways with Kaitō and with a subdued wave they turned and went on their own way. As he watched them walk away the young man pondered quietly to himself about something he had overheard, what the hell had been hanging from the telephone pole?

* * *

His question was answered that very evening as he watched the news alone with Nanako, the body of some television reporter had been found around noon, which would explain why his Uncle was not yet home from work. Nanako seemed concerned for her father, at least until the stupid Junes jingle came back on the TV and she began to sing along with it. Smiling indulgently Kaitō briefly marvelled at the optimism of youth and how she seemed to distract herself so easily. As for him he moved upstairs into his room and spent the evening unpacking what was left of his things, and though tired he was still reluctant to go to bed. He stayed up fairly late, reading a book to himself and wondering where his uncle was, and furthermore how the hell he had ended up in this town right when a mysterious murder had happened.

"If my luck doesn't start to improve," he thought to himself "I'll never make it through the year."

* * *

A/N: So there's two chapters down, and I'm already starting to change stuff around just a bit, including certain members if the IT being juvenile delinquents, this won't be huge changes in their characters, just how they're introduced to the Protagonist, I have to say I have just a tiny crush on my version of delinquent Chie, and if any of my readers are artists and want too I would love absolutely love to see some artist representations, may even use one for my cover image, but alas I lack the ability to draw. Any way you can check story progress and other nonsense on the blog, link is in the description. As always I want to thank Atlus for creating such a wonderful series, my friend Lilfox, and of course all you wonderful readers who have given me a chance, I certainly hope you'll end up loving this story. Oh and as a final aside this story is currently without a beta so all mistakes are totally the fault of my lack of grammar skills.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3: Coldness Blackened No Sound Feel No Pain

"So, you ever hear of the Midnight Channel?" Chie lowered her voice conspiratorially, as though she was about to share a great secret. Kaitō looked up from his food curiously at the young woman as she continued.

"They say that if you look into a TV that's switched off at exactly midnight on a rainy night it will show you your soulmate."

"And here I thought you were actually going to say something useful." Kaitō glanced towards the third member sitting at their table, and he couldn't help agree with the young Yosuke Hanamura.

"Have to say I think Yosuke is right Chie, does sound pretty farfetched."

Chie glared at the two of them, "Oh I get it, help one guy out of a trashcan and suddenly he's your best friend."

"Trash can law is very firm on that matter indeed, and we city boys wouldn't dare to disobey it." There was a moment of stunned silence following Kaitō's pronouncement, as though his two new acquaintances were surprised that the so far quiet young man had made a joke.

"Yeah anyway, I'll give it a shot tonight, if only to prove you wrong." While Yosuke attempted to make it look as though he was only humouring the girl Kaitō thought he detected a certain sense of hope in his voice, probably hoping he would see the young woman who had so casually shot him down earlier.

The three companions made no further discussion of the Midnight Channel, instead focusing on meaningless small talk as they finished the meal that Yosuke had provided for them. It seemed the town was having some troubles, the local businesses were being bankrupt by the presence of the new Junes superstore that had moved here 6 months ago, which coincidentally Yosukes father managed, and it was causing tension about town. Now with this new strange body appearance, it seemed that Inaba was seeing more excitement in the past few months than anybody could recall. Kaitō spent much of this talk observing, trying to gauge exactly who his companions were underneath what they presented to the world, he was not successful, he'd never been very good with the whole empathy thing and he ended up confusing himself far more than he'd figured out anything. Eventually the conversation began to fade away, and with nothing left to keep them together the group began to disperse, bidding each other a good evening and heading home to their own respective families.

Dinner that evening was an interesting affair and though he was late Dojima was in fact actually there, ostensibly, though by being there he simply turned on the news and growled at the TV. Despite what Kaitō considered to be an interesting interview with the person who had found the body, whom he was sure he had seen before, the rest of the news was nothing but standard fear mongering and jumping to conclusions. When it was over, and yet another Junes commercial came on which made him grind his teeth, Kaitō turned towards his Uncle intent on asking more questions about the case; only to find the exhausted detective had fallen asleep. With a sigh Kaitō excused himself from the table and stalked upstairs to his room intent on disproving the silly urban legend the attractive, tough, but quite possibly crazy Chie had shared with him. He sat in the darkness long before midnight, intent on making sure he was doing this absolutely right. The clock ticked slowly and Kaitō wondered why he was even entertaining this stupid idea, when midnight finally hit. His room was silent except for the gentle patter of rain from the outside, when suddenly the TV clicked on. Utterly shocked he stared as the TV flashed images of a young woman running, screaming obviously in terror and pain and he felt the sudden compulsion to walk towards the TV.

"I am Thou, Thou art I, Does Thou remember thy Promise?!" A loud voice boomed into his head, and with a startled exclamation Kaitō shoved his hand into the TV screen. Instead of shattering it, as he had expected, he found himself sinking into it, almost like quicksand drawing him further and further into its depths. Panic seized him and he began to struggle trying his best to free himself from the inexorable pull of whatever was yanking him; he was almost halfway through when, with an almighty tug, he shoved himself back out of the TV slamming his head on the desk behind him in the process.

"Are you alright?" Nanakos' voice thick with concern came from the other side of his door.

"Yeah I'm fine, just slipped, sorry for waking you up."

Growling, the young man pulled himself over to his futon and plopped down, whatever the hell had just happened he definitely blamed somebody for it, what the hell was wrong with this town?

* * *

"I think my butt's cracked now…" Yosuke, ever the master of conversation, stated as he, Chie and Kaitō stared at the vast foggy landscape around them.

"Remember when I told you guys I could go into a TV?" Kaitō muttered a hint of irritated sarcasm in his voice. "Do you believe me know?"

"I don't think now is the time for I told you so." Chie replied, sounding more irritated than frightened. "We should probably find a way to get out of here first, than we can deal with who was right."

"Then I guess we should start looking around, maybe find some place that gets us the heck out of here." The trio nodded and with apprehension laden steps began to explore the thick fog that surrounded them. They walked for what seemed like forever, occasionally calling out, to see I anybody would respond, nobody ever did. It almost felt like they hadn't gone anywhere, until Yosuke pointed out a small red light emanating from what looked like an apartment complex.

"Let's check that place out, look promising."

With few other options they entered the rundown building , and almost immediately regretted the decision. The room was unpleasant, with multiple copies of the same poster, all of them with the face torn off. It took a few short moments before the group noticed the cherry on top of the creepy cake.

"Dude," Yosuke began, "That noose and that chair in that position, that's never a good thing."

"That's not completely true Yosuke, that could definitely be a fun time noose, not a bad time noose."

Kaitō smirked internally as the other two turned towards him, identical looks of incredulity on their faces.

"Fun time noose, what does that even mean?"

"I'll tell you when you're older, we definitely need to be anywhere else but here right now."

While looking like he didn't to acquiesce Yosuke slowly nodded.

"Yeah this place is definitely a dead end, we should probably keep looking."

As they trudged slowly back the way they had come Kaitō noticed that despite being as healthy as ever when he woke this morning, he was breathing heavily and his head felt cloudy, almost like he was rapidly getting sick. Something was not right about this place, and no matter what he tried he couldn't divest himself of the feeling of unease that was setting his teeth on edge. He was so distracted that he didn't notice that they had wound up back where they had begun, nor did he notice Yosuke had hit a dead stop, at least until he ran into his back.

"Ow, what'd you stop for?!"

Yosuke didn't respond, he and Chie simply stared ahead at a strangely shaped shadow that was slowly approaching them from the fog. Fighting the sudden surge of panic that permeated his being Kaitō stood with his companions, whatever the hell that thing was he wasn't leaving them alone with it. And then it stepped into their vision and Kaitō felt completely stupid. It was a bear, of some sort at least, if he had to describe what it looked like he would consider it a combination of a clown suit and a bear, right down to the strange sound its footsteps made. He continued to stare at the creature right up until it spoke, panic in its squeaky voice.

"What are you doing here; they're right behind me you have to get out of here before..."

Whatever else the creature was going drowned out as a loud screech emanated around them and three horrors floated into view. They were macabre in a jolly sort of way, floating balls possessing only large mouths with human looking teeth, and tongues lolling out of their mouths.

"No, this can't possibly be happening again." Kaitō muttered to himself, as the monstrosities began floating closer to the young students. Ignoring the sounds of terror Chie and Yosuke uttered behind him Kaitō stepped forward and felt himself mentally reaching for the power that had manifested itself the night everything went wrong, and he felt it respond.

"I summon thee, come forth Arsene!"

A large winged creature manifested behind him, accompanied by a burst of wind and fire, and as it did so Kaitō felt something in him change, and a large smile crossed his face.

"One, Two, Three." He counted out, pointing to each of the monsters in turn, before looking at the one on the far right. "You're first."

Almost before the words had left his mouth, the creature behind him swooped forward slashing through the designated monster with wicked sharp claws, killing it instantly. Kaitō turned towards the next one, and smiled as Arsene flung burning blue fire directly into its open mouth dispatching it just as effectively. The third monster flung itself forward deceptively quickly and let out a triumphant bellow as it barrelled towards Kaitō; just as quickly the young man brought his arm slashing forward and his smile grew even wider as the chain that attached him to Arsene bisected the beast, spattering him in what he could only assume what was its blood.

Just as quickly as it had begun the battle was over, Kaitō found himself glancing around, waiting for more monsters to come forward and when no new challengers appeared he released the power he'd kept coiled inside him, Arsene dissipating as he did so.

He turned towards his schoolmates, and opened his mouth to say something witty when he collapsed onto the ground, sudden exhaustion making his limbs weak and his mind blank, he was aware of Yosuke and Chie lifting him up and supporting him, speaking to the bear creature; and he definitely heard it say something about letting them out of the TV world, which was apparently it's home; but not much else got into his head besides that.

It wasn't until he found himself sprawled in between the other two on the floor of the Junes electronics department that his brain reengaged and he regained his poised and calm attitude as well as his feet.

"So, I feel like hell, and frankly I don't want to think that what just happened is real, so I'm going to go ahead and go home."

Chie smiled absently at him, "Yeah I'm with Kaitō, I'm not feeling very well and I just want to go home, maybe I'll wake up and find out this was just a dream."

Once again the walk home from Junes provided Kaitō nothing more than additional confusion, and as he entered the Dojima residence he pushed it to the back of his mind. A goodnights sleep and he would definitely forget all about this in the morning.

* * *

"One of our students Saki Konishi has passed away." That sentence was enough to bring Kaitō's practiced ignorance crashing down around him; and now here he stood in the school hallway, attempting to comfort somebody he barely knew."

"I saw her you know," Yosuke spoke for the first time since hearing the tragic news. "I couldn't shake this feeling I had last night and so I watched the Midnight Channel again, and I saw Saki, it looked like she was in agony."

Kaitō didn't know how to respond to that, and he simply put his hand on Yosukes' shoulder in comfort, and waited for him to continue.

"I can't help but feel like that the place we were in yesterday has something to do with her death, and so I need to ask you something."

Kaitō braced himself, knowing what was about to happen.

"I need you to take me back there, I need to know what happened, so will you come with me, please?"

And despite everything screaming not to do so inside of him Kaitō found himself nodding gently.

"Yes, I'll come with you." And the commitment was made.

* * *

A/N: Sorry this took longer to get out than I hoped, life has not been the best lately, And now the mystery starts, how is it that Kaitō has already accessed his Persona, and how does it tie into the future guess we'll need to read to find out.

A reviewer asked a good question on the last chapter so I figured I would answer for them here, for clarifications sake; not all students at Yasogami in this AU are delinquents only one class for year ( In Kaitos case class 2-2) as such not all the members of the Investigation team will be delinquents, So far Kaitō and Chie are our only delinquents whereas Yosuke and Yukiko are not ( hence them not actually being in class 2-2) I'm keeping the split even and I've already decided whom will be a delinquent and who won't though I always welcome your input, maybe I'll change my mind.

Thanks to everybody who has stuck around through my (probably) overly thorough opening chapters. Hopefully I'll be able to get Chapter 4 up soon just depends on how my other work is progressing; don't forget to check my blog for more info about what's going on with both my stories and my life, you can find the link in my Bio. As always I want to thank Atlus for creating such an amazing world, my friend LilFox whom even out of my life continues to inspire me and whom I miss greatly. And of course I can't forget my readers and reviewers; I honestly wouldn't be able to do this without you guys.


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